I'm still here, though it's getting harder to remember to keep checking. :)
Just go ahead and put up the next post while we're waiting for others to check in.
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Quietly, as if to herself, "The trip here was difficult, but I'd thought..." Then, to the others, "I've seen nothing of this, but I haven't been near the Black Road in a long time. It's just creepy."
Marjana's not going to interrupt the king or really have anything to say here until we know more, so don't wait on me.
Marjana chuckles. "Welcome to court. I guess they're all the same. Still, I suspect it's more me they're interested in. Unless you're all as new here as I am?" "Anyways, I'm Marjana, as you probably all heard. I think I arrived after the rest of you, so I missed the announcements..."
Marjana looks momentarily surprised by his first words, but bows and steps back , moving aside to let others approach. Taking a glass of wine from a passing waiter, she finds a spot outside of the main traffic lanes and watches the crowd, waiting to either be approached or for a sign that the actual Council was going to begin.
"Your Majesty, the pleasure and the honor are mine." She bowed again as he greeted her.
"Perhaps there will be a less public moment later to discuss my family connection, but I am at your service, regardless."
Eventually, after even Marjana's patience begins to wear thin pacing circles inthe waiting room, the steward returns and escorts her to the hall. The herald announces "The Lady Marjana of Amber and Alhambra" and she sweeps into the room, ignoring the curious glances as she approached the table's head, bowing to Random and waiting for acknowledgement.
The guard looks up. "You're here for the Council? Invitation, please." "I'm afraid I don't have it. "What delegation are you with. We can get someone to confirm ..." Now the guard sounds annoyed. "I'm not with any delegation. I'm Family. Random's called us all in for this, as I'm sure you've heard. The poor guard snaps to attention. "Beg your pardon, my lady. I didn't recognize you." He hesitates. "I'll still have to send someone to confirm this." "Of course." And with just a hint of a smile, "No surpise you don't recognize me. I haven't been in Amber since before you were born, most likely." It takes awhile, but eventually the page returns with a steward of some kind, judging by his dress and manner. "Lady Marjana, welcome to Amber. His Majesty sends his regrets. Had you arrived earlier, he would have greeted you personally, but he and the Princess Florimel are busy with last minute arrangements for the conference. I will have rooms prepared for you for afterwards. For now, I can escort you to where you can refresh yourself and relax until the conference is ready to begin. If you'll follow me?"
Marjana has no particular need to be last, though I'd kind of wanted
Like Etzil, I'd hoped for a bit more preamble, so I had a better idea
She'll ask to be introduced simply as "The Lady Marjana of Amber and
I'm taking some steps, it's just a question of whether they're enough. We didn't take the normal Trade routes in and avoided the fleet and I came ashore incognito. Unless the Raven was recognized coming into the harbor and linked to me.
Until I announced myself at the castle, of course.
I also got too caught up in other stuff to get anything up sooner. Marjana's deliberately showing up near the last moment, so there won't be much chance for interaction before the council.
At least that was her plan. It would be somewhat amusing if someone's intelligence service was good enough to meet her at the docks.
The Raven sailed smartly into the great harbor of Amber, anchoring in the merchant section. Marjana stood at the rail in common sailor's dress, drinking in the sight of the city. "One visit, close to two hundred years ago, and she still haunts my dreams." Once again, she wondered if this was wise. The treachery of Amber's Royal Family to its kin was legendary. Still, rumor had spread throughout the Golden Circle of the King seeking to bring all the family home. There would never be a better time and if she wasn't ready to face them now, when would she be? Nevertheless, some caution was needed, for the crew at least. No need for them to stick their heads all the way into the noose. "Captain, as we discussed. No shore leave. Be ready to fight your way out on a moment's notice, if need be. If I'm not back by dusk, run for it. Wait off of Cabra, if there's no pursuit. I'll come if I can. Otherwise, lose yourself. Amber's fleet can't catch the Raven and there are worlds to hide in." She takes an oar in the longboat, just one more sailor rowing the captain ashore on business. Some hours later, a very different figure presents herself at the Castle gates. Clad in formal purple and gold with Icefang at her side, she announces herself to the guards as the "Lady Marjana, returned in answer to the King's summons". From there, she'll either browbeat her way past the guards or work her way up the chain until she comes to the attention of someone in the Family.
I'm not sure about Drama, but I think I need to know how or if Marjana was contacted. As I said earlier here, I'm happy either way: Random's agents could have found her out or she could have heard rumors of the search through contacts in the Golden Circle and come of her own accord.
Mind you, depending on how it goes, I'm thinking of arriving last minute and unannounced for the Council anyway, pushing the actual first meeting to the start of the game.
And by 'tonight' I apparently meant Monday night (what is now tonight). Sorry, had a totally crazy night at work and never found any spare time. That's OK. I didn't read it until this morning and didn't look at the timestamp. So I thought you meant Monday night all along. Sad if we've lost Nikolas & Alric, but that's a hazard of PbP games, especially with delays, even if they're unavoidable. I assume you've PM'd them, in case they've just got out of the habit of checking?
Many have heard that the Grimson was a PI like his father, and also that he spent decades hunting and warring with demons, but few know of his rise to pre-eminence in a certain shadow's Death Metal Hall of Fame under the nom de guerre Smilin'Jack. Over a hundred Battles of the Bands without a single Defending the Heart of Rock 'n Roll?
Question on skills:
I'd also like to encourage people to devote at least some of these to
The Wolf of the world's end: The second kingdom Marjana ruled, Eilodon was a dying land of technomancy that she tried to save. She'd wandered in looking for something else and found a land devastated by nuclear and magical war. The survivors clung to life only by using magic which drained more vitality from the very earth itself. She'd built a force of genetically and magically engineered animal people who could cleanse the poisoned land by the power she'd bestowed on them, but as they began to succeed they were stalked and slain by fire and fang. She stalked the killer, always a step behind. It learned of her hunt and began leaving some of its prey still breathing to taunt her with his words. "I am Mingan", he told them, "The Wolf who ate the Sun and I am this World's End." She stalked him, but though his tracks were burnt deep into the deep into the ground where he slew, they vanished into thin air before she could track him to his lair. At last she took him in a trap and with the bodies of her warriors piled around her they fought. He was a raging engine of destruction in the form of a wolf, forged of red-hot iron. His metal hide turned her strongest blows and she was hard pressed to keep his fangs and claws from her throat. They fought through the night through the dead lands and as the sun rose he had pressed her back to edge of a cliff above what had once been a great river. He leapt and she threw him, catching herself on a small ledge and letting him fall to the river below. The river erupted into steam, but by the time she had climbed back to the cliff edge, he stood on the far bank as hot as ever, laughing. Back in the last city, she summoned the technomancers to the forges and, tapping both the remaining strength of the land and the power in her own blood, she created a deadly crystal sword she named Icefang. By then though, Mingan stalked the very streets of the city, slaying where he would. Again she faced him. Now Icefang could cut him and his laughter stopped when its edge raked his flank. In earnest now they fought through the city, destruction in their wake. When the fight threatened their sanctum, the techomancers struck, binding Mingan long enough for Marjana to wound him deeply. He broke free and ran. She started to give chase, but with the city in flames around her, she turned back to pull survivors from the wreckage. When that was done, it was obvious the world was finished. The technomancers had drawn the last strength from it to battle Mingan. She took the last refugees away into Shadow to safety. By the time she returned, the trail was cold. The wolf had vanished, apparently into Shadow.
The Roc of Gib's Altar: Another point of view Well, it was all a long time ago, at least by my reckoning, and I might remember it all a little different from the Hero of Mist here. I was young, not long out in Shadow. I'd been studying - military science and different weapons and styles which was fun, and living with different cultures and higher tech which wasn't so much. It was time for a break and I wanted something familiar, so I found a boat and set sail looking for someplace familiar. I found Mist. Spent a little while bumming around the islands until I heard of this "call for heroes" business. Not normally my game, but I'd never heard of a bird that big even out in Shadow, so I wanted to see. After all, I was a child of Amber. What couldn't I handle out in this backwater? So I show up to the island where the sacrifice is supposed to be and find that no one is very interested in me. They were all too busy waiting for some big-name local hero to show. Still, I managed to get the basic lay of the land and more details on what had happened and where, so I headed up the hill to Gib's alter, figuring the giant Roc might be real and all, but this Gib was probably some trickster conjurer and finding him was the best way to handle the whole gig. But I'll let Nikolas tell what happened when he arrived in his own inimitable style.
Yeah, I've got no problem with your offer, nor do I think you're planning some massive betrayal scheme with it. I just want to understand how the mechanics of this are going to work. As for you taking them, if they're yours and you can find them in Shadow when we lose them, then you can find them in Shadow even if we haven't lost them, which means suddenly we have lost them. Best not to look too closely at how that works - how did Grayswandir get from being locked in some armory in Amber to a hollow tree in Shadow? But it was there when Corwin wanted it to be. As I understand it, Etzil, we can get Trumps anyway without points. At Random's request James will make us all decks. We only pay the points to make them personal items, rather than just something we're carrying around.
So, just to be clear here: Do we get the normal benefits of point bought items? Basically, having them tied to us so that we can find them again if we're separated. Or does James get that and he could find them and return them to us? Are there other benefits to having a deck bought this way that I'm forgetting? If we have to go through James to do anything, since they're his items, I don't think it's worth it for me. That's not even worrying about trusting him, just the convenience factor. After all, I wouldn't have the trumps, so it wouldn't be easy to get in touch with him. :) Especially if he really could abuse them and my only recourse to my deck vanishing at a critical time would be getting a point back.
I wouldn't object, though I'm currently redoing some stuff to scrape points, so I'm not sure I can actually afford it. Because I'm more paranoid than Marjana is at the moment, I do want confirmation from the GM that the logistics work - and that such items would actually be ours, not belonging to James and loaned to us. Such mechanical considerations aside, Marjana will be delighted to pose and happy to receive such a deck (points or not). She's only heard rumors of such things and will have many questions about their use.
Yeah, hope it all turned out okay.
Mostly, we just heal. Or shrug the damage off and keep going until we get the chance. Given time, you can duck off into a Shadow that allows quick healing tech - either magical or science fiction style.
Or you can just have yourself locked in a dungeon for a couple of years to give your eyeballs time to grow back. But I wouldn't recommend it.
Amber has indoor plumbing and a good sewer system. The mechanics would be simple enough to work in nearly any Shadow (basic valves and water pressure) and enough of the family has traveled in tech Shadows to feel the same need you do. Probably rooftop cisterns and gravity pressure rather than modern pumps.
Probably how their powers work and working out items or shadows.
I know I've got some item stuff I still want to sort out.
Good deal! Though, I'm more concerned with how you got bullets on here. I want cooly-formatted goodness! Meanwhile, I'd better get on the ball and catch up on my quota of PMs.
Because travelling in Shadow is slow and hard and you have to do it yourself. Unless someone has already taken the time to make a more permanent Path, but that's even harder and you then need to guard such open Paths.
And we come back to Amber because Amber is Real. We've all gone out into Shadow and sought and found the fulfilment of our dreams, but it's all been somewhat hollow because it isn't real. And at least in the original books because this was where Family was. What was the point in ruling over Shadows when your only true rivals couldn't appreciate it. Winning your father's approval or rubbing your rival's nose in your success means more than all the pleasure gardens you could conjure up out in Shadow. We're Gods in a way, but it's a very human way. A very dysfunctional human way.
Normally Amber rules over very little actual physical territory. The geography is somewhat vague. There is the city of Amber and Mount Kolvir that it sits partly on and partly at the foot of. There is at least something of a coastline. There is the forest of Arden. In the waters off the city is the underwater city of Rebma, Amber's reflection in the sea. Above Kolvir, on moonlit nights, is Tir-na Nog'th, it's reflection in the sky. (Both of these hold Patterns, reflections of the one in the basement of the castle.)
At least that's how I understand it, from the books and other passes at this over the years. The Viscount may well contradict it all, but those are the basic assumptions I've been working with. I've left out some metaphysics that wouldn't be common knowledge, even among the Family.
Let's say Apocryphal. They are the stories the children of Amber tell. And they are well known to have a loose relationship with the truth. Except for me, of course. I am completely honest and can be trusted in all things.
** spoiler omitted **...Marjana, care to jump in? I will, but it'll probably be tomorrow. It took me a moment, but "Roc of Gib’s Alter" is truly painful. I'm not sure I can live up to that.
Furious George?
"Ah, a worthy sailor and competent warrior has risen to the challenge. I'm sure the fleet will be safe in your hands. I will be happy to remain in my home waters." Marjana is content with the current state of affairs.
"I cannot bear to see a good navy in such poor hands. Training and discipline will fail and the proud fleet will be but a Shadow of its former self. I mean no offense, cousin Alric, but even you admit this is a task not suited for your hands.
2 points for the North as well
On the other hand, if your original concept included first in Strength and Endurance and Trump, you were being a bit overoptimistic. I don't think you came out too badly. :) But yeah, the auction does change things. This was a good one, I think. Especially towards the end.
So, barring a PC Trump artist, there essentially won't be Trumps for our generation? And even then, most of us won't necessarily have them? The heirloom decks will be mostly of (presumed) dead elders. That's kind of nice for us low-Psyche types, but I'm not sure what I think of it. If I'd known that up front, I might well have gone in a completely different direction and taken Trump. Oh well. Still, there are at least 2 with the points for Trump and a decent Psyche. I wouldn't be surprised to see an Artist.
Marjana, like some others here, is new to the Court, but she is skilled with war and with ships. The Southern Seas surround the lands of her birth. A position there will allow her to prove both her loyalty and her skills.
So then if one of you point-rich people buy Artistry, and you really like me, you could just give me a deck of Trump. But it wouldn't be mine, so if I lost it, it's gone? I suspect it's more like: King Random wants a way to keep in touch with his subjects and vice versa, so he has the resident Trump Artist produce Trumps of the family members and distributes them.That's how I've usually seen it work anyway. No idea what the Viscount has in mind. Cutting too many people off from access to Trumps removes a nice piece of the Amber flavor, in my mind. You could of course get the occasional special card as a favor from the Artist. And you could lose them, since you won't have paid points for them. You might be able to get a replacement deck, as Corwin does in the books, but I wouldn't want to ask for it too often. People might think you were careless.
I don't think I've ever been in a vaguely standard Amber game where everyone didn't have a basic Trump deck - known family members and a few locations.
If we don't have a Trump Artist, there may be NPCs still capable of it. Brand was the only elder shown to able to in the first series, but there's no reason there couldn't be others by now. Dworkin could even still be around. And we may still have a PC Trump Artist. I don't think it's been ruled out.
I don't know, Endurance + Bad Stuff means you don't die, it just hurts a lot. All the time. Of course, my 1st rank Endurance character in another game started dead and buried and he wasn't even a Bad Stuff character.
was waiting on the Viscount Other than you not having any points? :) I suppose once you're in bad stuff, why not keep digging.But yeah, they're open bids. We were just waiting for the official opening post from the Viscount.
Just to formally state the obvious: I am not even considering getting into this. And come on guys, keep going! You're already past the high Psyche and Strengths bids. 8 more points to tie the Warfare cost. It's absolutely worth it. Fight for days. Wear down your enemies. Regrow limbs.
Well, I think we're finding out who's the stubbornest. Which matches nicely with Endurance.
Honestly, as 2nd in Psyche, you're probably more of a threat than most of us. Depending on where you go for Powers, there are ways you can attack the rest of us that we can't easily counter. Marjana could gut you easily if she could reach you, but if you were a Trump Master for example, you could crush her mind from across Shadow.
It varies from game to game, so that's something of a question only for the game master. The usual answer though is that one way or the other we're family and as much as we might be at odds, open murderous conflict is frowned upon. Sort of broad mutually assured destruction. Unless you've proved yourself an obvious danger to us all, Chaney suddenly killing you will be seen as a sign he's a dangerous lunatic and the survivors will work together to take him down. He knows this, so he won't start it. Beyond us, there are also the Elders to consider. King Random won't look kindly on his powerful and useful kin slaughtering each other and many of us have the interest of at least one of the older generation.Competition tends to be subtler than that. Jockeying for position and influence. Making your rivals look bad. That kind of thing. If it comes down to an actual Throne War, there will be outright murder and blood in the streets, but there will have been time to forge alliances and protections before then. Edit: That's part of the purpose of the auction. Set up rivalries and make you worry about each other in a way just buying stats at point values doesn't.
Nah, pup, he means blood sacrifices. Just means he's very concerned about keeping the Sun rising each morning.
And this is why I was surprised how low it started, but still not jumping in. No way I had enough points left to compete for it. Distant fourth isn't worth a lot. That's an official "I'm out", by the way. Sticking with my initial bid.
It's 7 points behind the initial high bid for Strength. That's just silly. But like I said, it may just be different bidding strategies. It'll go up. Lots of people have points to burn. 50+ points in Psyche leaves plenty of room for Trump. Even more for Advanced Pattern or Sorcery.
Another counter we used is that Warfare is speed. He's catching your eye and starting to dominate you until his neck is suddenly sprouting a dagger. He does. By tricking him with something he didn't know about. Which is the whole point of fighting in Amber - find an advantage to let you stop someone tougher than you. I do think that Wujick turned everything up to 11, boosting a lot of things beyond the source material.In a lot of cases, it should be a combo of multiple stats: In the psyche vs warfare thing, it's linked to does he beat your Psyche by more than you beat his Warfare. And of course, direct eye contact is the riskiest Psyche approach. Psyche plus powers giving remote contact is harder to stop.
Another counter we used is that Warfare is speed. He's catching your eye and starting to dominate you until his neck is suddenly sprouting a dagger. Doesn't work as well if he's doing it remotely. As for "sorcerer" in the first series, it always read to me more like using Pattern than the specific spellcasting of the Merlin books. Corwin's Pattern abilities appear like sorcery to Shadow dwellers. Fiona's the Sorceress because she's gone far deeper into Pattern than the others. Similarly with Brand and Trump, which is still drawing on the Pattern as a source.
Heh. I have similar pains about Psyche from previous games, Etzil. A lot of games put magical combat more on a Merlin scale than a Corwin one. Or worse, make it so mere eye contact makes you a meatpuppet for the #1 Psyche character. I believe this is actually one of those where the second series isn't canon. I really dislike the psyche barrier trick. Letting people not invest anything in psyche, but have a near perfect defence for only a few points is really bad design. We generally added in some disadvantages: mostly that it was real obvious and creepy even to minimally sensitive people, and made psyche control harder to get. Even invulnerable armor and deadly damage weapons don't give the kind of absolute advantages the psyche barrier does. If nothing else, they easily counter each other. Edit: I'd really rather have a game more like the books, even the Merlin books, where everyone may have their couple of iconic items, but there isn't a standard loadout of gear that you basically need to compete.
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